The management of clean water supply is turning out to be a challenging endeavour for water utilities due to the rampant growth in urban population, increasing agricultural and industrial activities, depleting water resources and ageing infrastructure. Accurate measurement of water consumption is one of the key indicators of efficient water management. However, the water infrastructure in most cities is old, with vulnerable water distribution networks using aged pipelines well beyond their useful life cycle. This, combined with other issues such as faulty and obsolete meters and lack of expert staff for addressing grievances, has led to a vast mismatch between supply and consumption of water. Along with leakages, illegal connections and poor asset management, this has resulted in high non-revenue water (NRW) levels, in turn causing losses.
As India rapidly urbanises, water security becomes more and more important. To this end, the central government has undertaken various initiatives to ensure proper water network management in the country. Key programmes focusing on improvement of water supply services include the Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation. The central government, in 2019, launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) and the Jal Jeevan Mission” (JJM). The JSA aims to create awareness about water conservation and management. The JJM, meanwhile, was launched with the chief objective of providing piped water to every rural household in India by 2024. As of October 21, 2021, 83,671,823 rural households have been covered under the mission. In the budget announcement for 2021-22, JJM-Urban was announced as a programme under the Housing and urban aAffairs ministry. It complements JJM-Rural and focuses on providing universal water supply coverage to all urban households through functional taps in all statutory towns, in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 6. It also aims to reduce NRW levels to less than 20 per cent.
Technological interventions
Many urban local bodies (ULBs) in India have adopted smart IT-based solutions to improve the efficiency, longevity and reliability of water network infrastructure. Technological interventions such as installation of advanced metering and bill collection methods, detailed mapping of assets and underground pipes, and deployment of leakage control technologies and supervisory control and data acquisition systems are increasingly being undertaken in a bid to contain the losses resulting from increasing NRW levels. Through these devices, remote data is collected on a real-time basis to generate actionable insights, thereby efficiently fixing loopholes. As per a Frost & Sullivan analysis, the demand for smart water meters in India can reach up to 500,000 units by 2025, from 220,000 units in 2019. The smart water meter market is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14.7 per cent during 2019-25. The application of internet of things in smart metering solutions is also beginning to gain steam.
Further, ULBs are replacing water supply pipelines and manual meters, and addressing leakages in pipeline networks, as part of their 24×7 water supply projects. Systems are being integrated and complex measures to monitor, control and regulate the usage and quality of water resources as well as maintain the associated equipment are being implemented, to effectively manage the pipeline infrastructure. Cities such as Pune, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Nagpur and Shimla have already started replacing old water supply pipelines and deploying smart meters in order to achieve round-the-clock water supply. The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation has also initiated the process of implementing 24×7 water supply projects in nine towns of Bengaluru. The Delhi Jal Board has engaged private players in the Mehrauli and Vasant Vihar areas of South Delhi to operate and maintain water supply infrastructure. The city has been divided into three zones for the city government’s ambitious scheme of providing 24×7 water supply to every household by 2024. The government also aims to reduce the NRW level to 20 per cent over a period of two years and ensure 100 per cent metering of water connections.
Pain points
The major challenges faced in pipeline management include the rehabilitation and maintenance of huge infrastructure. Losses due to the increasing levels of NRW resulting from leakages in the pipeline network further deepen the problem. Despite undertaking initiatives to fix this, bigger cities such as Delhi and Bengaluru still report water distribution losses of up to 40 per cent of the total water supplied. The Covid-19 pandemic has further highlighted the need to expand water supply infrastructure across the country and bridge the infrastructure gap that exists. Efficient water management needs to be pursued as a critical agenda for post-Covid-19 reform.
The road ahead
Pipeline infrastructure plays an imperative role in reducing the level of NRW, which is a key performance indicator for water utilities. High levels of NRW indicate a poorly managed water utility. Despite several initiatives being taken to address this issue, loss of water still occurs. It is essential to undertake supportive actions such as replacing obsolete pipelines in a timely manner, plugging leakages, installing sensors for leakage detection, and metering connections. Meanwhile, asset management is emerging as a methodology that water agencies are adopting to evaluate and manage their pipeline infrastructure.